The Sepang Circuit is located 65 kilometers away from Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. This circuit has hosted the F1 Grand Prix since 1999, and this year happens to be its 10th year.
This track has a total of 15 corners, 8 straights, a single lap length of 5.543 kilometers, and a race of 56 laps. The total race length is 310.408 kilometers, which is the longest among all Formula One events. At the same time, the Sepang Circuit also has the fastest track of all Formula One circuits, with a track width of 22 meters.
Although it is the widest of all F1 tracks, the Sepang track is not easy to overtake, because the two longest straights of the Sepang track are followed by hairpin turns. When the speed difference is not very large, For the leading driver, as long as he can walk his own route well, it will be difficult to be overtaken.
It is also worth mentioning that there will be a very dangerous animal on this track, that is, the cobra. The Sepang circuit is surrounded by agricultural planting areas. In rural areas of Malaysia, cobras and wild cats are two very common animals. In other words, where there are cobras, there are always wild cats. Although wild cats are not at the top of the food chain, they happen to be the nemesis of cobras. However, most wild cats are afraid of people, so they will not get too close to the track. Cobras are different. If you see a cobra on the Sepang track , then don’t be surprised.
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Zhang Guan arrived in Malaysia on Wednesday and will attend a media conference on Thursday. The team members arrived earlier. The first thing they did when they came to Malaysia was to go to the meteorological department to ask for a weather forecast.
This is Malaysia, rain is a normal thing, but not raining during the Malaysian race is something new. The most troublesome thing is some sudden and very short-term rainfall. Sometimes there is a sudden heavy rain, but the sun will shine again four or five minutes later. For racing, when it rains, you have to put on rain tires, and when the rain stops, you have to put on rain tires. Change to dry tires. It might rain after you put on dry tires. If you change to rain tires then, the team's tactical plan may be completely disrupted.
So weather forecast is very important for the team. Most small teams without money obtain weather conditions from the meteorological department, while large teams like Ferrari simply rent weather satellites and temporarily hire meteorological experts to provide services for them.
Due to their excellent performance in the Australian Grand Prix, the Force China team has also become the focus of the media. They received more shots during Friday's practice.
There was no rain in practice on Friday, and Ferrari, which had given up its kinetic energy recovery system, also recovered and took the top two in the second practice session on Friday afternoon. As for McLaren, another giant that was plagued by the "perjury scandal", its results were ranked in the middle.
As for Zhang Guan, he has been familiar with the track throughout Friday, and then constantly made adjustments to the car. He didn't set the fastest lap, but his results were at the top.
However, Zhang Guan's teammate Barrichello was unlucky. He had a gearbox failure during practice. According to regulations, changing the gearbox during the race requires him to start five places back.
On Saturday morning, it started to rain lightly before the practice started, but after the practice started, the rain stopped and the sun came out. At this time, the track seemed a little slippery, and the riders did not dare to run at full strength. It wasn't until the track dried up after a few laps that the drivers began to set the fastest times one after another.
As in the previous race, Rosberg of the Williams team still dominated the practice session, and then Ferrari, Red Bull and Toyota also performed well. The two cars of Force China finished ninth and tenth respectively, ranking 9th and 10th respectively. Before McLaren.
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Saturday afternoon, qualifying.
The race hadn't even started yet, but the finish line was already crowded with reporters, and they were chasing each other around the track with all sorts of long-range and short-range tactics.
"From the results of the practice match, it seems that the Chinese force, which took the top two spots in the last race, performed relatively average."
"A new team won a championship in the first race. Do you really think they are Ferrari? The result of the last race was just a coincidence."
"Yes, I think so too. After all, in the first race, the major teams were not ready yet, so Force China took a trick and won the championship. Now in the second race, the other teams are definitely in good shape. There has been some recovery, and it is impossible for China Force to continue to dominate the Sepang circuit. Just look at the results of these two days of practice, and China Force did not even make it into the top three."
"I remember during the Australian Grand Prix, China's performance in practice was relatively average. Maybe they were hiding their strength?"
"Impossible. How can a new team hide its strength? It was just good luck that Zhang Guan got the pole position in the last race. You see, they might not even be able to qualify in the third quarter this race. Race!”
"Look, Zhang Guan is out! There are no green stripes on the tires, they are hard tires!"
"Hard tires? It seems that Force China is quite confident and dares to run the first qualifying session on hard tires."
"Judging from their results in practice, there should be no problem running the first quarter on hard tires!"
The temperature in Malaysia is relatively high, and the Sepang circuit is a track that consumes tires. If it is a super soft tire, I am afraid that it may not be able to survive even 10 laps. Therefore, Princeton Company provided drivers with Available in both soft and hard tire configurations.
The hard tire that Zhang Guan is currently using is the hardest of the four dry tires, and also the slowest.
But this did not affect Zhang Guan's promotion. Soon after, he set a score of less than 1 minute and 35 seconds, and this score was enough to ensure that he entered the second qualifying session.
The best result in the first qualifying session was achieved by Zhang Guan’s teammate Barrichello, 1 minute 34 seconds 681. This result was almost 0.4 seconds faster than Zhang Guan, but Barrichello used A set of soft tires, and he will use this set of soft tires in the second session.
It is worth mentioning that the Ferrari team may have underestimated the enemy. Both Ferrari cars only ran two time laps before returning to the pit area. They thought they could enter the second quarter, but in the end Massa suffered a loss. When it came to elimination, Raikkonen was also in 14th place and almost did not enter the second quarter.
Ferrari made a strategic mistake. They did not lack strength, but misjudged the situation, resulting in the elimination of a car. But the Force India team was really out of strength. Their two cars were ranked 18th and 19th respectively, and both were eliminated. The last place is Toro Rosso's Buemi. He is a driver who has just entered Formula One this season. It is normal to finish last.
In the second qualifying session, Ferrari learned a lesson and came out early. The other drivers were also stimulated by Ferrari's elimination of a car. They drove out of the pits at the beginning and used They are all soft tires.
In the second qualifying session, the drivers chose soft tires and ultra-light fuel, so the car speed was much faster than in the first session. Almost every driver's time was within 1 minute and 35 seconds, and it is still going on. improvement.
Red Bull Racing and Toyota Racing performed brilliantly in this stop, running within 1 minute, 34 seconds and 30 seconds one after another.
However, this result is still much slower than that of a certain person.
"1 minute 33 seconds 778! It's Zhang Guan! He's still so fast. Just like the second qualifying session at the previous station, there's another single lap gap of close to 0.5 seconds!"
The second chapter has been delivered. Please give me a guaranteed monthly ticket. I would like to thank my book friends Zhili*Zhijie, Sui Li Fei Xiang, Swz Don’t Forget, xsf9800, Shaomai ONE, and my family in Inner Mongolia for the reward. Thanks,
(End of chapter)